Auction sees confiscated collection fetch $54 million

The Italian tax collectors were quite happy last weekend when a gigantic collection – Duemila Route – was sold for a hefty profit by Rm Sotheby’s at a special auction.

This is one of the single largest collections ever auctioned in Europe – and it went under the hammer for RM Sotheby’s last weekend, snatching a fabulous €51.26 million ($54.20 million). No less than 817 lots were included – 23 cars, 155 motorcycles, 140 bicycles, 55 racing boats, countless bits of automobilia, numerous parts, and a number of vintage bobsleds. The Duemila Route (2000 Wheels) collection was once the pride and fame of Italian private security magnate Luigi Compiano – but he was relieved of (alongside numerous other assets) by the Italian government to get tens of millions of euros in unpaid taxes.

Compiano was quite the Porsche fan – he had more than 70 examples – as well as over 60 Jaguars, nearly 50 Ferraris, and dozens of Lancias, Alfa Romeos, and Maseratis. The cars were anywhere in between pristine and in decay and there were numerous race and rally cars in the collection. He also had a huge “appetite” authorities have also seized and sold a number of properties, a dozen meat slicers, model cars and trains, an heroically huge pornography collection, and two large lots of sex toys. A part of the Milano AutoClassica show, the RM Sotheby’s sale was enormous – 100 trucks transported the lots from warehouses near Venice to the 200,000 square-foot (18,580 square meters) venue.